Nigeria is on life support [House to 150M poor People] - Femi Falana

http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/index.php/en/news/item/9669-nigeria-on-life-support-falana

NIGERIA has been described as a nation surviving on a life support machine following its current position of housing more than 150 million poor people out of the 300 million living in Africa.

This summation was made by human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, who was represented by Mr Femi Aborishade, while delivering a lecture at the second annual Olalekan Olamide Platform for Development.

Mr Falana in the lecture entitled ‘Development- How it begins with you,’ said the umeployment rate in Nigeria is becoming too alarming, saying this might not be unconnected with the series of violence being witnessed in Nigeria today.

He said: “It is unfortunate that despite the increase in Nigeria’s income, particularly from the sale of crude oil, development has been in the negative. Nigeria is transiting from posterity to poverty while poverty in the country has continued to be on the increase.”

Falana added that unemployment and poverty had further compounded series of unrest that had become an abmnormal way of life in Nigeria.

“Nobody is safe in Nigeria again. No one can sleep with his two eyes closed, not even the arrogant political office holders who plunders Nigeria’s wealth, for the fear of the Boko Haram sect. The essence of any government in power is to first provide and enable a secure environment. No government should continue to be in power if it failed to provide security,” Falana said.

In his contribution, the chairman on the occasion, Prince Bola Ajibola, who was also represented by Mr Nurudeen Oladimeji Ariyo, urged the government at all level to do more in developing the system, saying, some Nigerians were more developed than Nigeria.

He said: “We have several Nigeria technocrats scattered all over the world and developing developed countries. For example, in Malaysia, 18 Nigerians are working in their oil sector as we also had hundreds in different capacities across the globe. In fact, in Nigeria today, young Nigerians can do so many things with computers. That simply means Nigerians are more developed than the country itself and we can work on this to achieve the desired developmental goals we’ve been craving for.

“The government should just work on some individuals to really contribute to the development of the country,” he said.